Swapping a Gift Card

December 26, 2004 7:19 AM

I received a $50 gift card from my parents for Christmas. From Sears. I think the intention was that I would buy underwear and socks. I'd like to swap it for one from a book store, but all the gift card swapping sites seem suspicious or they take too big of a fee. Recommendations?
posted by Mo Nickels to shopping (47 comments total)

Go to Sears, stand by a cash register, and swap the card for $50 cash with the help of an understanding soul.
posted by riffola at 7:37 AM on December 26, 2004

Sell it for $45 or so on ebay
posted by rxrfrx at 8:18 AM on December 26, 2004

or you could even sell it on ebay for $55 dollars. fark link.
posted by ShawnString at 8:29 AM on December 26, 2004

I have had good luck with Craigslist for swapping unwanted gift cards, but Ebay is probably safer.
posted by amber_dale at 8:36 AM on December 26, 2004

go to sears, buy something for ~45 ... they'll prob give you cash for the remainder.. return what you bought and ask for it on your credit card (ive done this more than once w/o a problem at various retailers, namely The Gap), and then go swipe your cc at barnes and noble
posted by seinfeld at 9:10 AM on December 26, 2004

Either that, or just think "Craftsman Tools". One of the (relatively) few things Sears does well is their handtools, and if you've got any need for wrenches, screwdrivers, or even a smaller power tool, that's not a bad way to take advantage of the card without losing any value on it.
posted by LairBob at 9:33 AM on December 26, 2004

Another vote for Craftsman Tools. If one ever breaks they exchange it for a new one, no questions asked, no receipt needed.
posted by caddis at 9:55 AM on December 26, 2004

I sent a gift card I received half a year ago away and have yet to receive my side of the deal. The guy recently told me that sending me my stuff is going to be his new year's resolution. Needless to say, I'm not impressed.

I'd advise to either trade in person or through a legit channel like eBay.
posted by ODiV at 10:13 AM on December 26, 2004

With the advent of the magnetic strip gift card, it is pretty difficult to get leftover cash-in-hand when you make a purchase with one. Ditto for rolling it over to a credit card. I'd read the fine print very carefully before weathering the customer service department line.

Anyway, I third the Craftsman suggestion. Even just as a semi-inept jewelrymaker and totally inept home repair person, I could still blow through $50 at Sears pretty quickly.
posted by gnomeloaf at 10:17 AM on December 26, 2004

Yes! Buy some Craftsman tools, hide them away for ten years, then immensely appreciate what you had the wisdom to do.

For consumer grade tools they are outstanding.
posted by sled at 10:18 AM on December 26, 2004

Hell, spend the fifty bucks at sears on underwear and shoes. You need them anyways. Then pretend that it was your money you spent on those ordinary sort of items, head over to the bookstore, and splurge fifty bucks as if it were a gift card.

Your parents get to feel good about clothing you, and you get to feel good about their book-choosing acumen.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:22 AM on December 26, 2004

five fresh fish has got it, don't you need some new underwear? Doesn't everyone need some new underwear?

But then again, there are some very nice tool sets that are good to have too.

What does someone do with a present from WalMart?
posted by fenriq at 10:32 AM on December 26, 2004

What does someone do with a present from WalMart?


Pray you can find something you like in the dvd/cd section.

Or, go to the housewares section. One can never have too many mixing bowls/measuring cups/ kitcheny odds and ends.
posted by konolia at 10:54 AM on December 26, 2004

I'll second konolia's suggestion and take it further - check out their website for DVDs, etc.
posted by FlamingBore at 11:12 AM on December 26, 2004

See, but the problem with going to Sears is that there's, like, one in all of New York City and it's a huge hassle to get there. And the Sears web site doesn't seem to offer a way to use the card online (or, if it does, I couldn't find it: I went through the entire checkout process for some jeans just to see. Bupkus.).

But I probably will have to take the journey. It'll take about three hours to spend $50. Bah.
posted by Mo Nickels at 11:38 AM on December 26, 2004

What does someone do with a present from WalMart?

Everyone needs groceries (unless you're a breatharian).

Remember, if it's canned you don't have to squeeze it to see if it's fresh.
posted by shepd at 11:39 AM on December 26, 2004

Ok, so ignore what everyone else has said so far, because your problem has a simple solution. Barnes and Noble has the most forgiving return policy known to man. They take back anything they sell, sans receipt, in exchange for store credit at their lowest sale price. Just buy a bunch of DVDs or other stuff you might find at both stores. Use up the card. Go to B&N. Make the return. Buy what you want there. Read. Be happy. Profit (If you find something on crazy sale at Sears, you might actually make a real profit in B&N dollars).

I umm... know a guy... who umm... returned his med school books there, and just kept rotating each semester of school. In the end, he exchanged his last set of books for a lifetime supply of orange mocha frappucinos.

It definitely works for books. Can't guarantee, but it should work for wrapped DVDs too.
posted by drpynchon at 11:44 AM on December 26, 2004

Sears also owns Land's End and perhaps you could use the gift card on their website, they were much earlier into ecommerce.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:16 PM on December 26, 2004

There are children in Africa who would love that Sears card, Mo.

You'd have lie and tell them Sears sold food, of course.
posted by dong_resin at 12:25 PM on December 26, 2004

I umm... know a guy... who umm... returned his med school books there, and just kept rotating each semester of school. In the end, he exchanged his last set of books for a lifetime supply of orange mocha frappucinos.


That would be a doctor I wouldn't care to see. If he would do that, what other moral corners would he cut?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call Sears-you might be able to get home delivery using your card over the phone. Worth a try.
posted by konolia at 12:31 PM on December 26, 2004

I dunno, konolia. I'd do that, but when it comes to a person's health or safety, I'd be mind-spinningly anally careful. Moral deficiency in one place doesn't always indicate moral deficiency in other places (and, unfortunately, moral fiber in one place doesn't always indicate moral fiber in other places either).
posted by bugbread at 12:53 PM on December 26, 2004

I actually doubt that you could use the gift card online--it would be too easy to fake them. Mo Nickels, there's a Sears right near me, so I would be happy to give you $50 for the gift card. Email me at kyzygy80 at /the opposite of cold/mail dot com if you want to arrange that.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:18 PM on December 26, 2004

Mo Nickels, the email domain I refer to above is h o t m a i l but I am trying to thwart spambots. The handle is not munged.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:19 PM on December 26, 2004

I find it completely silly that a large retailer like Sears wouldn't accept their gift cards online. Just to be sure before you make the 3 hour round trip - email customer service, there might be a way to put it through.

I got a gift card for Old Navy in October and it was really simple to use online. And it acts like a debit card, so they won't give you back the difference in cash now - that's why all retailers have moved to the debit card style system rather than paper certificates. I'm not sure how Sears does it, but it's pretty hard to commit fraud with it, I would think - there's the 16 digit card number, yes, but then I had to scratch off a part of the back of the card and I got a (what I assume was) random 4 digit number. I guess this acts as another form of security to ensure that the person using the card online is the person who has the card, since no one is swiping it at the register.

Anyway, if you really can't use it, I'd try to sell it on ebay or craigslist or something. You might get less for it, but if you sell it for $40, is that $10 you lost worth it not to have to make the long trip to buy something you don't even want? For me it would be.
posted by AlisonM at 2:19 PM on December 26, 2004

Sears gift cards "cannot be redeemed for online purchases, cash or applied to your Sears credit accounts" per this Sears web page.
posted by WestCoaster at 2:43 PM on December 26, 2004

Wow, konolia... The view from up there must be spectacular. I myself see only Jesus for my medical care, because you know, if someone so much as copies a CD, who knows what they're capable of.

Tell me something. How many lives did you save this week?
posted by drpynchon at 5:41 PM on December 26, 2004

Craftsman is considered the highest quality consumer grade tool manufacturer you can readily buy. They stand to their product and represent one of the few coprorations who haven't turned into pieces of dogshit.

Anyways, buy yourself a toolkit. It will come in handy, and can last well beyond your life.
posted by Keyser Soze at 8:21 PM on December 26, 2004

Wow, konolia... The view from up there must be spectacular. I myself see only Jesus for my medical care, because you know, if someone so much as copies a CD, who knows what they're capable of.

Tell me something. How many lives did you save this week?

Actually, I don't copy CDs either. But what was described in that post if true was pretty outrageous.

And your question? Irrelevant.
But it always amazes me when people think that good deeds cancel out bad ones.
posted by konolia at 9:40 PM on December 26, 2004

And your question? Irrelevant.
But it always amazes me when people think that good deeds cancel out bad ones.

And it amazes me how people can contribute nothing to the benefit of their communities and have no interest in improving the quality of life of those around them, but are the first to throw stones for something as morally ambiguous as intellectual property. We have libraries. A book in good condition is a book in good condition. Extorting students by charging them $200 for a 100 page pamphlet because they have no choice but to read it isn't exactly saintly. If circumventing that fee "outrages" you, I recommend you never turn your tv on or step outside the house. And please don't ever snoop around your doctors office, or your kid's teacher's classroom. You might find out that they double-dip their potato chips, and that would be an outrageous moral crisis.

And the point wasn't whether or not you copy CDs. I could care less. The point was that your moralizing was beyond stupid. By your logic, Martin Luther King would make for a crummy civil rights leader because he cheated on his wife. You would look to Mother Teresa with disdain because she took some questionable contributions. The natural question, when faced with such vacuous righteousness, is to wonder who is doing the judging.

Good is good and bad is bad and there's an area somewhere in between, but when you judge people and not acts (as you clearly love to do), it's going to be a process of summation, because unlike you, nobody's perfect. And that is why the question is entirely relevant. Because the flip side of not doing "bad" is actively doing "good." What good have you done for the world, besides a steadfast passion for upholding copyrights? You seem to have an inscrutable moral compass. I'm just wondering where it points.

Some of us have moral responsibilities that extend a bit beyond proselytizing. Some of us have to make very hard decisions with the lives of people and their loved ones at stake. And fortunately for you, we don't have the luxury of being judgmental.
posted by drpynchon at 11:28 PM on December 26, 2004

Drpynchon, that was a longwinded and and irrelevant post. Dr King was a good civil rights leader but ALSO an adulterer. The fact he did a lot of good in one arena does not cancel out the fact he broke his marriage vows, assuming those stories are true.

I am not your judge, but there is One who is. And I suspect Barnes and Noble would agree with Him.

None of us are "good"; that is why Jesus had to die for us...but I am still not going to applaud what I saw as clever fraud. Period. If you are the one that did it, you should be ashamed of yourself, not bragging on Askmeta.
posted by konolia at 6:51 AM on December 27, 2004

Blah Blah Blah, konolia. If you think B&N is losing money over their policies, by giving one person store credit for a product he returns and then selling it at full price to someone else, you need a lesson not only in morality but also addition. From a moral perspective the act is hardly any different then selling a book used. Ultimately, if you want to point to a loser in the process it's the writer of the book.

But frankly I'm tired of your selective responses. My problem wasn't with your albeit idiotic moral reasoning and difficulty seeing shades of morality or degress of badness (which must make you a real hoot at cocktail parties). My issue was with your sanctimoniousness and the fact that you wouldn't see a doctor based on some perceived moral defect wholly unrelated to his work. Without making it painfully obvious for the unapologetically shortsighted, just as Dr. King was both a good civil rights leader AND an adulterer (perhaps), someone can be a good doctor AND copy CDs, or return books she's read, or undertip waitresses, or... How many apt analogies are you going to ignore until you realize that you are being a moron when it comes to this?

And I didn't brag. I told an anecdote and answered a pretty simple how-to question, without moralizing, or responding with an idiotic answer only with the intent to make moral snarks.
posted by drpynchon at 7:42 AM on December 27, 2004

It seems important to you that we be convinced your actions were justifiable.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:59 AM on December 27, 2004

konolia, you are getting mad props from me for your patience with docp here and your willingness to discuss this issue calmly and candidly.

However, this sentence struck me as (unintentionally?) funny:

I am not your judge, but there is One who is. And I suspect Barnes and Noble would agree with Him.

My perception is that the moral compass of Barnes and Noble is not exactly in synch with God's. If Barnes and Noble is upset about how clients use the store credit policies, I don't think it is for moral reasons, but rather out of self-interest.
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:14 PM on December 27, 2004

Ultimately, if you want to point to a loser in the process it's the writer of the book.


Thank you. The person/persons who worked, studied, put forth effort to produce the book in the first place-AND the publishers, AND the distributors INCLUDING the bookstore, that would have sold you the book you otherwise "borrowed."

The individual in your "anecdote" STOLE from all of them, plus the person who finally did buy the book got a used one while paying full price. Not fair there either.

Yup, I would prefer not to go to a doctor who would do that.
posted by konolia at 12:28 PM on December 27, 2004

Sidhedevil, thanks for the props...and I should point out I only meant that Barnes & Noble and the Almighty would agree re the book borrowing, not on everything.
posted by konolia at 12:31 PM on December 27, 2004

Baloney. The publisher is going to profit once and only once from the sale of the physical property. The bookstore breaks even. The distributors already got paid for distributing. And the guy that buys the book eventually is getting a book that is in new condition. He's free to examine it before he buys it. Words don't wear out after reading. I maintain that the author does take a hit, but it's the same hit he takes when someone sells their books used and doesn't send him a royalty check. But naturally, that outrages you as well. Look, it's not a saintly act, and I never suggested that it was. But there are shades of morality, and you still haven't made any defence for the point that really upsets me (you can place the act itself wherever you like on your moral spectrum), your willingness to judge the doctor on this. I guarantee you that noone practicing medicine today hasn't cut a corner at some point DURING THEIR TRAINING that you would have found far more outrageous. Noone. There isn't a single doctor who hasn't made a crucial decision during their internship on no sleep for 48 hours. Now THAT, I welcome you to judge.

It's aggravating, five fresh fish, not because I feel the need to defend the action from a moral perspectivee (though I do find that conversation interesting). It's aggravating because as a doctor, one is more or less forced to set extremely high standards for themselves. It's the only way to survive. And for someone who doesn't deal with the pressures of making very difficult moral decisions on a daily basis to sit back and throw stones, makes you want to put your head through a wall. And it's usually the same person that seeks a snakeoil salesman for treatment of their colon cancer...
posted by drpynchon at 1:37 PM on December 27, 2004

Uh-huh. So it's that as someone with extremely high moral standards that you want us to understand that exploiting B&N's exchange policy was... not indicative of your moral standards?

Incidently, I purchase my blue jeans from a store that has a no-hassles return policy. Nonetheless, I've yet to return a pair of jeans after having worn them for a season... not that that is indicative of my moral standards.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:20 PM on December 27, 2004

Drpynchon, what you described was more than the cutting of a corner, and you know it. You described behavior that happened semester after semester, and you urged the original poster on this thread to commit fraud.

Okay, you are an ER doc. I get that. But I also get that judging from behavior (again making the assumption that you were the one in the anecdote) I could not trust you farther than I could throw a bull elephant. Frankly your protestations to the contrary are worthless. You want me to trust you? Then be an honest person. If you choose to be dishonest, even if it truly is in one area of your life, you forfeit my trust in EVERY area.
posted by konolia at 2:45 PM on December 27, 2004

konolia, I like you, but your position here is insufferable. I sure hope you never need medical assistance, because if you investigate the mind, heart, and background of any doctor with sufficient thoroughness, you'll find they don't meet your high moral standards. Do you really think if someone will cheat an author of royalties they'll therefore amputate your leg for the hell of it? I thought you were smarter than that.
posted by languagehat at 3:57 PM on December 27, 2004

The jeans analogy was totally off the mark and you know it. For the second owner, rebuying say pants or underwear that's been used for a year is nothing like rebuying information. Noone rubbed their ass all over the books. Talk about disingenuous.

And konolia, I work in the ICU, and for the record, I'm talking about a guy I went to school with, and I'd have no problems getting care from him. In fact, I often consult him on very complicated patients with multiple organ system failure. Because he's brilliant, and he's right, and in my particular field that has real value. Of course the beauty of the unit is that by the time you were to get there (god or whomever forbid), you wouldn't have the option to play judge either. You could do the judging after we save your life and pull the tube out of your trachea.
posted by drpynchon at 4:29 PM on December 27, 2004

Guess what. I know doctors. I know doctors who wouldn't rip off Barnes and Nobles. One used to head up our local emergency room before he moved to China.

I also had the experience,years ago, of waiting on an anesthesiologist who was dining with his extramarital paramour (she was a regular, and bent my ear regularly with way too much info on it all.) Let me tell you something. I wouldn't want him in charge of my anesthesia while he was in the middle of deciding if he wanted to stay with his wife or continue his affair....yet one could say his personal life had no bearing on his job. Bullfeathers.

True, I would have no knowledge of a doctor's character if I got in a car wreck and took whoever was on call, but if I have a choice, I would rather not go to Dr. Cheat-the-System.

I am relieved you are not the doc in question, but I am disappointed in your approval of his actions. Not to mention the fact you really did encourage fraud earlier in this thread. Dude, that's just wrong, and your noble profession does not change that. In fact I am disgusted at your continual mention of it in this thread, as it comes off as worse than pompous.

And languagehat, I have a friend whose obstetrician screwed up incredibly resulting in her child being born with multiple disabilities. I know another fellow whose doc put his artificial knee joints in upside down, and that sort of thing was not an isolated incident with that particular doc. Et cetera. I do not trust doctors blindly. Both the above cases went to court and the patients won large settlements,btw. I am not saying docs cannot make mistakes, but a doc who would cheat Barnes and Nobles would also cover his and other docs' butts with crap like the above. I KNOW all docs don't walk on water.
posted by konolia at 5:17 PM on December 27, 2004

The jeans analogy was totally off the mark and you know it. For the second owner, rebuying say pants or underwear that's been used for a year is nothing like rebuying information. Noone rubbed their ass all over the books. Talk about disingenuous.

Breaking in jeans and breaking in the book binding are about the same thing. Like I want to buy some book that a nose-picking ass-scratcher has been reading, smearing his festering germs all over the page corners? Give me a pair of jeans that have been through a wash cycle any day of the year.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:57 PM on December 27, 2004

Well, konolia, the thing is, I place the offense in line with selling your books and not paying royalties, and haven't been given a good reason not to. Information and a chair are too different commodities. One is roughly infinitely reproducible at virtually no cost, while the other is fixed in supply and requires a great deal of capital with each product. In fact a video game, book, and chair each have unique properties that make conflating them from an economic or a moral standpoint nonsensical. From my standpoint, the moral calculus relating to intellectual property is far from objective. Say I download music all the time -- music that I would never have paid for and subsequently never had much exposure to. Any artist whose music I'd listen to more than twice will get my money when they tour LA, and I'll purchase a record on vinyl from them directly as well. Have I chosen to violate the law, and usurped the power to take an army of middlemen out of the equation? Yes. Do I feel like I'm morally wrong or have a hard time sleeping at night? Hardly.

And while you're entitled to choose your doctor however you please, you have yet to suggest that your choice is anything other than arbitrary. And the reason is that most doctors have nothing to gain by making medical mistakes but a great deal to gain from keeping their patients happy. The only place a doctor might cut corners relates to how much time they spend with you, and you're free to evaluate and judge that for yourself. It's real hard for the unscrupulous to find ways to put their interests above those of their patients because the two are tied so closely together. You certainly don't have to trust a doctor blindly, but there's a big difference between avoiding a surgeon known for amputating the wrong leg (or even one with a reputation of being curt with his patients), and avoiding a doctor because you don't like his choice in footwear. What you're saying is that I could point you to the leading expert in liver transplants, someone who has the best track record among his peers in terms of outcomes, and you would decline his services because he's also a womanizer. That example is not too far from home. Believe me, good doctors with personal lives in shambles are not the exception but the rule.

Ultimately what you're assuming is that those who are morally lacking by your own standards (however much I do disagree with them in this particular case) are also likely to be negligent. And it just isn't the case. You have absolutely no clue how good an anesthesiologist that womanizer was, and you don't have any idea what that obstetrician does in his free time.
posted by drpynchon at 8:52 PM on December 27, 2004

Breaking in jeans and breaking in the book binding are about the same thing. Like I want to buy some book that a nose-picking ass-scratcher has been reading, smearing his festering germs all over the page corners? Give me a pair of jeans that have been through a wash cycle any day of the year.

And these are defects that you can't detect when choosing to make the purchase? If you ask me, placing a moral value on what we're talking about depends on whether there actually was ass-scratching or nose-picking involved. But like I said before a book is not only different from jeans, it is in fact also different from a series of ones and zeros. But even that difference depends ultimately on the reader and how much he values the content relative to the object.
posted by drpynchon at 9:00 PM on December 27, 2004

You have absolutely no clue how good an anesthesiologist that womanizer was

I do know his mind was not on his job the way it should have been. He was actively deciding whether or not to save his marriage and was in counseling while still seeing the other woman.

And I also know someone who died after a year in a coma after an anesthesiology screwup.
posted by konolia at 5:09 AM on December 28, 2004

So you were there, in the operating room, while this anesthesiologist was working so you could see how distracted he was? Even if it was affecting his work, it'd have the same effect if he were thinking about what he saw on TV last night, or how much he loves his wife, or how great and glorious God is.

I suspect that in actuality, you simply tend to look down upon those who don't share your moral viewpoint. Which is of course your prerogative, though I think the bible has some things to say about judging others.
posted by squidlarkin at 12:23 PM on December 28, 2004

Just came across a Reuters' article - "Unwanted gift cards find new life online".
posted by ericb at 3:08 PM on December 28, 2004